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Comment by brownrw8888 | Hacker News Reader

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What kind of hourly rates can you expect to find on Top Tal?

Definitely a lot higher than on Upwork, on average.

Let's say someone working for FAANG making $300,000 USD per year (including benefits), that's roughly equivalent to $150 per hour. Could they make the same on Top Tal?

Approx 1 year ago I did part of the interview process to freelance on toptal, but I dropped as I've found a better opportunity. At the time the lowest rate you could find for a developer was $70/h. In constrast on upwork I see developers for as low as $15/h. Can't tell if you'd get $150 but it's definitely possible to get $100+.

That doesn't sound promising at all. Hourly rate for consulting should be around 2x your hourly earnings as a full time employee, so if you were getting $300K at a FAANG you should get $300/hour as a consultant. Even if you just go by your base salary (maybe your $300K FAANG compensation is $200K salary and $100K other stuff) you're still at $200/hour. There is another agency whose name I've forgotten that specializes in placing ex-FAANGsters and its rates do get up in that range.

That's not a high bar though.

Looks like they are not accepting new devs right now.

Aren’t these sites just a race to the bottom for devs especially with global reach

I heard toptal required doing a very long unpaid homework assignment/project to apply. Is that true? If yes I'd have to consider it a non-starter as a matter of principle.

Who sets the rates on Toptal?

I was going to use lemon.io but they cap out at $100usd an hour.

Not worth my time.

You (the consultant) sets the rate you get paid. Toptal adds a secret margin on top of that which is what the client pays.

I haven't done Toptal in a while, but my rate was always higher than that. I got pushback from from Toptal's internal recruiters whenever I asked to increase my rate and a few of their clients did turn me down due to the rate. But I never backed down and it never took more than a few weeks between starting applying to jobs on Toptal to signing a contract.

I wouldn't want to depend on Toptal for my income. But it's great as a way to fill in between other engagements if you're firm with your rate and the kind of work you want.

In last 2 years developer pool has increased a lot on Toptal. There are not enough jobs there now.

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